Statement on the Appointment of the New Members of the Intelligence Oversight Board

I am announcing the appointment of Mr. Thomas L. Farmer, of Washington, D.C., and Gov. William Scranton and Senator Albert Gore as the new members of the important Intelligence Oversight Board. Mr. Farmer will serve as Chairman.

This board reports directly and exclusively to me. It is empowered to receive information directly from individual members of the intelligence community and receives periodic required reports from the Inspectors General and General Counsels of the community.

In announcing this appointment, I want to take this occasion to thank Ambassador Robert Murphy, Mr. Leo Cherne, and Mr. Steve Ailes for distinguished service as members of the first Intelligence Oversight Board. They have rendered very important service to the Nation.

At the same time I am abolishing the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which had previously been monitoring the quality of intelligence. The National Security Council system and the intelligence community themselves, as structured in this administration, plus the creation of the new Senate Committee on Intelligence, as well as the contemplated House committee, can now effectively review and assess foreign intelligence activities.

Farmer is a partner in the law firm of Prather, Seeger, Doolittle, Farmer, and Ewing in Washington. He is a founding member, director, and general counsel of the Overseas Development Council. He is also a member of the International Committee of the National Chamber of Commerce of the United States and chairman of its Task Force on Foreign Investment in the United States; a member of the Monetary Policy Group and the Economic Policy Group of the Atlantic Council; and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

From 1964 to 1967, Farmer was General Counsel of the Agency for International Development and Special Counsel to President Johnson's Special Representative for South East Asian Economic Development. From 1954 to 1964, he was an associate in the law firm of Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett. From 1951 to 1954, he was an intelligence officer for the Central Intelligence Agency. He worked on John F. Kennedy's Presidential campaign in 1959 and 1960.

Albert Gore is chairman of the Island Creek Coal Co., a director of the Occidental Petroleum Co., and was U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1953 to 1970.

William Scranton is a former Governor of Pennsylvania and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.